Many people are likely to be unaware exactly what their website is worth. This is mostly down to the fact that the money it earns you and what it is actually worth can have very little correlation. After all, social networking sites can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and even into the billions, and it is unlikely that any of these sites have actually been turning over this kind of profit year on year.

What is your website worth?

This means that what a website earns you and what it could be worth are likely to be very different, especially if you have a very good website that isn’t currently reaching it’s potential. Whilst web stats will indeed be important to a buyer, if you can show that you have had a great deal of interest without actually marketing the site in the way it should be marketed, a buyer may well see just how much potential there could be in a site should a company take over that has the time to work on it in much greater detail.

Visiting a site where you can buy and sell websites will be a great way to see how much similar sites are going for, and you may well find that a site that brings in a certain revenue in a year with a great deal of work involved could actually be worth a similar amount to you in a one-off sale, without you having to lift a finger.

Of course, some sites will be worth less when sold than they are actually earning an individual and therefore it is worth taking this into account too before you decide to put up any of your web sites for sale.

There are of course ways to increase the value of a site. If the name of the site is likely to seem old hat very soon (for instance, if the URL includes a date or a modern cultural reference), changing the name will help you to get far more money (so long as you direct people to the new URL for a significant period before you sell).

Buying under-performing websites, optimising them and then selling them on for a profit can be a very lucrative business. However, whilst the prospect of ‘turning a quick buck’ may seem very appealing, you need to be aware that profitable outcomes are by no means guaranteed. Indeed, there are many things which you need to consider before you invest your time and money in optimising an under-performing website.

Are you up to the challenge?
It is fair to say that buying and selling websites in this way requires you to be something of an online entrepreneur. As well as having your finger on the pulse of the web, you need to be someone who is in tune with what’s new and who is willing to gamble on what’s going to be new tomorrow in order to achieve success. If this doesn’t sound like you then maybe you should think twice about getting into it.

What to look for
When looking for a website to buy, you should ideally be scouting around for established websites that are just starting to take off, but which are being hindered by the current owners’ lack of effort/ability regarding search engine optimization (SEO) and/or online marketing.

What to do
Once you identify and buy a website, you need to quickly implement your changes. In essence, this will mean tweaking a few percentage point increases in multiple areas so that you can achieve a good double-figure increase in sales over a relatively short period of time. If you can complete your project just before the general marketplace catches up then you can make a good profit by selling the site at a premium before the Internet becomes saturated and your early advantage is eroded (or the market slows).

A word of warning
Like any other business endeavour, the buying and selling of a website demands time and effort. Remember, just the transfer process and daily maintenance of a site will require considerable time and energy, so if you don’t have much of either available to spare then maybe you should hold off making your purchase until you do. Indeed it would be a great shame if your enthusiastic intentions to improve a website result in you instead killing it because you simply don’t have the time or energy to maintain it properly. Quite simply, a new website brings with it new responsibilities so you must be willing and able to deal with general webmaster aspects like support emails, server maintenance and SPAM control on a day-to-day basis.

Here at Siteique, we make the process of buying websites as straightforward as it can possibly be. So, if you’re ready, willing and able to get involved in this exciting and potentially very lucrative marketplace, we can help you to achieve it in a quick and easy way.

To find out more and view our current sites for sale, simply take a few moments to browse our pages further.

Buying and selling websites can a very lucrative business these days. Indeed, a website that you initially started or obtained for little outlay could well be worth a great deal of money if you have made a success of it.

If you do indeed have such a site then you might well benefit from a thinking about the following aspects:

Consider your site’s appeal
You need to realise from the outset that not all websites have immediate appeal to potential buyers. Indeed, if your site is very dependant on your individual input then you will most likely find it hard to sell. Personal blogs and sites which sell bespoke products (e.g. jewellery) are classic examples of this. Also, sites that do not convey longevity can also be difficult to sell; therefore if you have a date like ’2014′ or the name of a sports tournament which is likely to become outdated in your URL, you should consider channelling the traffic to a new URL at least a year before endeavouring to make the sale. In general, affiliate sites, Adsense sites, forums and drop-ship e-commerce sites normally have the most appeal to potential buyers, as long as the products and content are ‘suitably acceptable’ i.e. not illegal or of an adult nature.

Keep comprehensive records
Most people who are looking to buy a website are unlikely to just take your word for it that your site is the perfect investment for them. No, if your website really is great then buyers will want to see proof of it. In general, the best way to do this is to have comprehensive records at hand which can be studied and scrutinised in detail. It is easy to keep detailed records: all you need to do is enter things like payments and expenses into a suitable records package (or profit/loss spreadsheet). Be sure to keep all dates and amounts accurate and up to date.

Keep detailed web stats
As well as comprehensive records, people looking to buy websites generally want to see Google Analytics. So, if you don’t have it installed on your site, get it. Without doubt, it makes sense to do it now rather than waiting until you are ready to sell, as the more history your site has, the better it will be for you.

Make suitable preparations
Try to think of any issues which might make a potential buyer wary of buying your site and fix them before you put your site up for sale. For example, if your site is dependent on copywriters, make sure they’ll still be available after the sale. Or, if you sell commercial products, ensure that your suppliers will be willing to work with a new owner. Buyers don’t like surprises and as such they will run away from any deal that throws up unexpected issues.

If you meet the above criteria and have realistic expectations then the odds of selling your site could be very favourable indeed.

Buying and selling websites can be extremely profitable when done correctly. However, you shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that buying any old website will mean an instant boost to your bank account. You need to choose wisely, so we’ve come up with some of our top considerations before you seal the deal.

Get the Right Market

When you buy websites it helps if the market works in your favour. This could be a market that you already operate in and know about, so you can use your pre-existing knowledge to work your magic on the site. You can also direct traffic that visits the new site to your own existing website if you already operate in the same or similar area. Make sure first, however, that the traffic you are diverting is the right kind of traffic for your original site.

Similarly, you may want to purchase a website that operates in a niche area, especially if there isn’t much existing competition. The key here is to predict the market and go for niche areas that will be popular in the future, even if it’s only short-lived, not ones which are on their way out.

Generate Revenue through Advertising

Most websites can be monetised through advertising revenue but not all website owners take advantage of this money-making strategy. Consequently, when you buy a website, look at if it currently has any advertising strategies in place, and if not, implement some. You don’t need worry about scaring away all the site’s visitors either – we’re not suggesting you turn the site into a pop up advertising nightmare for the user! A few adverts that pay you every time someone clicks on them (PPC) alongside some good quality content won’t put site visitors off.

Alongside advertising we need to consider search engine optimisation (SEO). This ensures that you get more visitors coming to your site, giving you a greater chance of making money through advertising campaigns. It might be that you need to take a look at the content of the site, which could be extremely high quality but doing you few to no favours when it comes to optimisation. Make sure the keywords for that product or service’s market are included on every page, but make sure you do so ethically – Google penalises those who operate sneakily!

Look at the Competition

Obviously one of the major threats to any website is the amount of competition out there. Before purchasing a site, take a good look at what it does and who its target customers might be, then do some internet research of your own to see who the competitors are and how successful they seem. Make sure you look at all of the information available, taking into account elements that can be changed. For example, if you’ve found the website’s content is good but not well optimised, you can easily change this and improve the site’s rankings without too much effort. However, if the competitor is a huge player in the market, such as Amazon or facebook, for example, the chances are you’re never going to be able to compete.

Plenty of industries have people who come and buy the commodity, then sell it on within a short amount of time to make a profit – property and the stock market being just two of these. But did you know that you can buy and sell websites in the same manner to make money?

Most customers tend to think of a website as a place where they can find information or buy a product or service. Unfortunately, this is all many business owners think too, failing to recognise the money-making potential that all websites hold. With more and more people turning to the internet for shopping and research, many monetising opportunities are lost because those running the website don’t know about them, or even choose not to implement them.

Through our site, you can buy a website that you can see needs improving, turn it into a profitable site and then either keep it yourself and retain the profits, or sell it on for even more money. By buying a website that already exists you don’t have to do the hard part of getting it established in search engine indexes, creating the site itself, or finding the target audience (although you may have some tricks that can increase this). You’ll see from our listings how many average monthly visitors the site has, as well as its current monthly income.

The key is to then build on those existing links to increase traffic to the site. You can do this in several ways, such as through optimising the content on the website so that it will feature higher in search engine rankings for particular search terms. Create a large network of backlinks, perhaps by posting on other sites, blogs and forums, including a link to your own site.

Other ways in which you can make money from your site include PPC (pay per click) advertising, such as Google AdSense. This works by posting relevant and related adverts on your site, and every time a visitor clicks on one of these, you earn some money. Of course, in order to generate money from this, you need to have visitors, so make sure you implement an SEO (search engine optimisation) strategy first. The frequency that these ads are clicked on will also depend on where they’re located on the site – blended with the content tends to get a higher success rate.

As well as PPC, you can also sell your own banner advertising directly. This allows you to determine exactly how much you earn rather than paying commission to Google or someone else. However, in order to attract companies who are willing to advertise, you will need to demonstrate that you have a large amount of traffic to your site, so it might be worth running a successful PPC campaign first.

When deciding whether a website will be profitable or not, you should also consider its domain name and how long it has been registered. Domains that have been registered for twelve months or more are usually better because they are more established and have had longer to build links.

In the past, buying and selling homes was the fast way to boost your profile and make a quick buck. These days that’s often no longer viable, and that’s why savvy investors are getting into the online marketplace instead. Being able to buy and sell websites can be a great way to enhance your profile and see your profits soar, and if you do it well there’s nothing to stop you seeing fantastic results.

The theory behind building a website portfolio

Profitable websites can bring in huge amounts of cash for their owners, and people will be willing to pay great prices for a website that can promise them a decent monthly return. It’s all about being able to generate income, and with some of the best websites generating hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds each and every month it’s well worth getting into the business. And, if you flip websites, or take a poorly performing website and transform it into a profitable one before selling it for a fantastic profit, you could make even more.

Flipping websites—turning websites into cash

With a little bit of work you can easily turn a website from one that ranks poorly to one that’s bringing in the money, and some people even manage to flip a website in a matter of hours. Of course, you need to have a bit of basic web knowledge but there are plenty of online tutorials that can teach you a thing or two, and for a lot of people it can be a viable form of income or even something that brings in a bit of extra money on the side.

How to make a business out of buying and selling websites

It needn’t take much to make a business out of website flipping, and with a modest initial investment you could soon notice the difference. You could buy a website for as little as a few pounds, spend some time turning it into one that’s bringing in revenue, then sell it on for a profit. There are really only two key things you need to focus on: monetizing the website and bringing in traffic.

Monetizing a website can often be achieved using simple programmes such as AdSense or AdBrite. These generate cash by producing content-generated paid-for ads, and if you use such programmes wisely you could soon increase your level of revenue. After that you need to focus on SEO (or search engine optimisation) techniques. SEO is all about bringing in visitors and increasing traffic, and there are a number of ways you can achieve that—you need to focus on creating a search engine-friendly design, utilising keywords effectively and securing backlinks, and social networking has recently been touted as a great string to any SEO bow.

Once you’ve created a website that brings in traffic (and plenty of revenue) you’ve got a saleable commodity and one that people will pay big bucks for, so make sure to consider getting into the business of buying websites to flip and you could soon see a boost to your profits.

Investing in websites can be extremely lucrative. By buying websites that can be improved and making some positive changes to them, you could sell them on for a huge profit. But how can you tell if websites for sale are worth their asking price?

When you look for property to buy, it’s likely that you are aware of a number of factors that can influence its asking price. This helps you decide if it’s priced fairly. Similar principles can be applied to buying websites. By educating yourself, and with a little bit of practice, you will soon be able to tell if a website is worth the price it’s advertised at.

There are a number of factors that determine the value of a site. Never buy a website until you’ve consider all of them:

1. PageRank

‘PageRank’ indicates how popular a page is in Google rankings. Pages are ranked between 1 and 10, with 10 being the highest. The higher a website’s PageRank, the more popular (and therefore more valuable) it is.

When shopping for websites, look for ones that have a high PageRank, or at least have potential for their PageRank to be improved.

2. Traffic

The amount of visitors a website has every day is extremely important in determining its value. Even if a site is beautifully designed, if very few people visit it, it will never make much money. Where the traffic comes from is also important. Sites that get a lot of traffic from search engines are more valuable than sites that get visitors from other sources. You should also look at how long visitors stay on a site. A site that visitors click away from quickly is unlikely to be profitable.

3. Domain

A website with a popular domain name will always demand a higher asking price. But, how do you define a ‘popular’ domain name? ‘Popular’ doesn’t necessarily mean something that’s fashionable. A domain name that’s very similar to that of another high-traffic site could be considered popular because visitors could stumble upon the site by accident.

The age of a domain is another important factor. Older domains are generally considered to be more valuable because they are more established.

4. How much daily work is required?

Some websites require hours of daily work to turn a profit, while others can make money by simply being left alone. A website that requires very little daily work is always a better choice. That leaves you free to work on other websites, look for more sites to buy, and find other ways to bring money in.

5. Can it generate revenue?

This is one of the most important factors to consider when looking for websites to buy. Sites that generate a good income will always be more valuable than those that don’t. If you can’t find, or can’t afford, sites that are profitable, look for ones that can be improved in order to make more money. Consider if you can add advertisement to a site, use affiliate systems, ask for donations or sell products.

A few years ago, the property market was booming. Developers could make a huge amount of money by buying run-down properties, improving them, and selling them on for a huge profit. While it may no longer be possible to make a fortune by buying and selling houses, the virtual property market is going strong. Just like property developing, it’s now possible to buy websites, boost their value and sell them on for profit. Here are some tips to help you get started on the virtual property market:

• Research the Market
When you first start buying and selling websites, it can be tempted to purchase as many sites as you can afford. However, this could turn out to be a costly mistake. Before you buy anything, take some time to research the market to find out the types of websites that people are interested in buying. Try to discover exactly what people want and need, along with the kind of thing they are looking for. You can then invest your money and time in giving potential buyers exactly that.

• Buy Sites with Improvement Potential
If you only buy websites that are already near perfect, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever be able to improve them enough to make a significant profit from them. Buy a website that has room for improvement in terms of design, content, traffic and turnover. You will then be able to work on improving all these areas of the site, increasing its value before selling it on for a huge profit.

• Know Exactly What You’re Going to Do Before You Buy
When you are buying and selling sites for profit, it’s important that you consider everything before you rush into making a purchase. Decide exactly what you can do to improve a website, optimise it and boost its value before you purchase it. This will enable you to sell it on for profit in the shortest possible time.

• Remember SEO
One way you can increase a website’s value is to improve its ranking on Google searches. Aim to improve the SEO on any websites you purchase and, in turn, you will increase traffic to the site and hopefully gain more customers. This will help you to maximise the profits you make when you sell the site on.

• Market the Sites You Sell
When you sell your website, you can just place an advert and forget about it. However, it’s likely that you’ll have more success if you invest some time in marketing your site. Draw attention to the strong points of your websites, and make sure every potential buyer knows exactly what it offers. This will hopefully increase the demand for your website, increasing its final selling price.

• Create Your Own Site
If you can’t find a website that you’d like to buy, or can’t afford one, you can create your own. Although this requires more time, it’s a much more affordable solution and the site can exactly match your own vision. Work on the site’s content and SEO, and it could be possible to make just as big a profit when you sell as if you’d bought and sold on an already-made website.